mjzee

I'll be at the quartet show.

I found the thread refreshing. It's instructive to compare, to prioritize...it's important to be able to say "this recording is better than that one" or "I didn't like what he did here." Why not? As long as we've paid the price of admission, we've earned the right to state an opinion.

Actually, freelancer, you seem to be injecting a note of hostility that wasn't here before. The guy made a statement; why not leave him alone?

Attending college in 1973, I was introduced to the then-current folk & trad scenes. At the various folk festivals, I heard The Boys of the Lough, Martin Bogan & Armstrong, Planxty, Honeyboy Edwards...pretty much anyone who eventually showed up on Shanachie.

It should be noted that those "Ray Brown Trios" (whoever they are) probably play a lot more enjoyable music than does Ethan Iverson. Every try chillin' out to The Bad Plus?

That's a great story. I hope they sell the t-shirts via mail order. Thanks for posting.

Math is a beautiful thing. But you gotta remember that it's math-beautiful, not woman-beautiful, or even perfect-high beautiful. Not everybody remembers, not all the time. Not that they always should. But... This is a great statement. I wish this BB had "like" buttons (like Facebook) so I could "like" this post.

The parts of SUNPYG that work best are the more composed works, that function best as stand-alone tunes: five-five-FIVE, Treacherous Cretins, Canarsie, and Ship Ahoy (perhaps my favorite). The rest are the guitar solo portions of other performances or unstructured jams that seem aimless. If you're soldiering through SUNPYG, wait till you encounter "Guitar." I don't envy you there.

When I first answered the question, I mentioned albums that I heard in 1973. Of course, subsequently I've heard many albums that were recorded/released in 1973, but I mentioned ones that were important to me in that year. And yes, the Leo Kottke made a huge impression on me then. I was on Capitol's mailing list at the time, and got a reviewer copy. The last track on the album cut off (intentionally) during the applause; my later CD has the applause fade out.

I'm not a big fan of his singing. I didn't love "Sky Street."

Here's a recent discussion about that (though I thought it was more recently):

1972 was probably a better year for music than '73...but thanks to Bev for starting the thread. I started college in '73, and met a whole new bunch of people... there were The Who freaks, and that was understandable (tho I was more in the "like" category), but then there were The Kinks freaks. Really? In 1973? But there they were, a very passionate bunch. Preservation Act 1 was OK, and I probably wouldn't have paid attention to it without them. We started a "Whatever happened to Pete Quaife" campaign.

The Dead's Wake of the Flood was a nice arrival. On the other hand, Zappa's Over-Nite Sensation was a crushing disappointment, pandering to the masses, as was Beefheart's Unconditionally Guaranteed. Dylan's Planet Waves was great, but "Dylan" was a stinker (I know, I know, released without consent) and "Pat Garrett" was inconsequential. Iggy's Raw Power had a lot going for it, but that odd mix sapped a lot of its strength. I liked Jackson Browne's For Everyman. Maybe the best albums of 1973 were Mahavishnu's Between Nothingness and Eternity, Saunders/Garcia's Live at Keystone, and Soft Machine 6 and 7. I also liked Toots & The Maytals' Funky Kingston and Oregon's Distant Hills. (Kudos to iTunes for providing a sort showing the year!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZB9-pBAv4c King Crimson - French TV 1974

Moondog 2 has always been one of my favorite albums. Very hard to describe: songs written as rounds, many singers overdubbed, some instruments, and just a tour de force. Available as part of this release:

The Bach Guild's (Vanguard) Big Handel Box. 14 hours of music for 99 cents: Amazon

"Maceo! I want you to blow!" So James Brown began chanting to his new saxophonist, Maceo Parker, shortly after the 21-year-old musician joined Brown's band in 1964. By regularly calling out his name on records and in live performances, Brown made Mr. Parker the band's most popular member after the star himself. It's impossible to imagine Brown's soul and funk hits, like "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I've Got You (I Feel Good)," without Mr. Parker's distinctive solos: His tightly focused yet ebullient sound became synonymous with the soul music of an era. In 1968, when the Brown troupe arrived in Africa for the first time, the crowds at the Abidjan airport in Ivory Coast began chanting "MA-CE-O, MA-CE-O!" as the band disembarked. Mr. Parker has long had a reputation as one of the most dependable men in the music business, a player who made it a point to avoid drugs, alcohol and the other craziness that affected so many of his friends. His memoir, "98% Funky Stuff: My Life in Music," helps explain how he got that way. More here: WSJ

I never liked "Quiet," and it's definitely atypical of Sco's output. In general, I'd go with the Verves last (although there are some enjoyable ones); hard to say why, tho maybe it's just too much output.

I've always loved this album. Besides the obvious respect the two guitarists have for each other, their styles are very complimentary, even their tones. It's not a cutting contest. Sco's tunes have the slight edge for me, but Pat's are no slouch. Great variety of tunes, too...the album plays well from beginning to end. Larry, it sounds like you're not giving Scofield his due. He had a very strong run of albums in the '80's and '90's. The albums with Frisell burn, and the funk albums are great (check out "Groove Elation" and "Hand Jive"). For Sco, it's all about the tunes...very melodic and catchy. Not a lot of ego there. Also, the Enja's are really good (try "Out Like A Light" and "Shinola") and the Gramavision "Flat Out." Sco is fun.

Up for curiosity. Did we ever determine which is the best sounding version?

Review in WSJ: Experiencing a New Hendrix Relic

Traffic has darkened the façade of the Hunter College-owned MFA Studio Building on 41st Street, between the Port Authority and the Lincoln Tunnel. The interior, a picture of institutional indifference, doesn't look much better. But a climb to the sixth floor reveals a glittering treasure called the Association of Cultural Equity (ACE), a vast and remarkable assemblage of field recordings, instruments, books, posters and other artifacts collected by the legendary American archivist Alan Lomax over the better part of the 20th century. In 1983, Lomax founded ACE in this building as a command post for his lifelong mission, to compile and disseminate the sights and sounds of cultures from around the globe, hoping to preserve them lest they be extinguished. Twenty-four years later, and 11 years since Lomax's death, the building is being sold, and ACE is preparing to move into a smaller space at Hunter's Brookdale campus, on 25th Street and First Avenue. Continued here: WSJ

What are your thoughts on the Pablo box: whose dates are correct?

I never liked what he played. Too many notes, not enough taste or discretion. Listen to "Black Beauty," where he's virtually battling Miles, and compare it to Live Evil, where Jarrett really complements the music and Miles's vision. Return To Forever was all bombast and commerciality. Just my two cents.